Shaw: Flyers 'reaping the benefits' of Michkov's offensive surge

Philadelphia Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov was scorching hot in his first two games of the post-John Tortorella era, but interim head coach Brad Shaw admits he's still trying to figure the phenom out.

"He's an exceptional player with the puck, exceptional player offensively," he said after the Flyers' 7-4 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. "I think what he has to learn is, the better he checks and the better he plays without the puck, the sooner he gets it back."

Shaw added, "There's so much room for growth there. ... He's gonna learn as he goes, what works and what doesn't work in so many different scenarios, and he's well down that path already. That's a real exciting player to sort of picture where he may be three, four years from now. He's a challenge, he can be opinionated and he can be a little bit stubborn, but he's playing some great hockey for us offensively right now and we're reaping the benefits."

Michkov scored two goals in each of his last two contests. He now has six multi-goal outings on the campaign, which is tied with Brian Propp (1979-80), Ron Flockhart (1981-82), and Mikael Renberg (1993-94) for third most by a Flyers player in a rookie season. Only Dave Poulin (seven in 1983-84) and Eric Lindros (eight in 1992-93) had more.

Shaw noted that Michkov's ambition to evolve his game is "a real tribute" to the work Tortorella put in with the youngster. General manager Danny Briere also said the ex-bench boss did a "tremendous job" in helping Michkov.

The Flyers fired Tortorella on Thursday, and the club has won its first two games under Shaw.

Philadelphia forward Noah Cates conceded that the team is playing a little looser since the coaching change.

"I think it's just a mental reset, a little more mental clarity, mental focus where we're just executing, forechecking well, maybe thinking a little less," he said. "But just any change I think at that point in time is welcome."

The Flyers erupted for 13 goals in the past two games after getting outscored 53-22 in the 13 contests before that.

Philadelphia has also scored three power-play goals since Shaw took over after not striking on the man advantage since Feb. 27.

"If you're a goal-scorer, you get energized by scoring," the new coach reasoned. "So it's a pretty fun bench right now."

The Flyers are in last place in the Metropolitan with a 30-36-9 record, and Shaw's directive for his coaching staff to close out the season is clear.

"With seven (games) to go ... I think our job is to pump energy into that room," he said. "Help them get through these last seven games, try and build something positive, and if that helps this team in September and into the start of the year, then perfect."